Xiaomi is already a household name for high performance and quality products for a fraction of the price. Its powerbanks and smart phones were disruptive in every market they entered. Most recently they have expanded to India which has been proven to be a massive market for Xiaomi. In an interview with The Economic Times, Hugo Barra, the VP of Xiaomi Global says that they were not ready for the tremendous growth in the Indian market.
He added that to fulfil the massive demand, Xiaomi had to move supplies from China and various markets. By doing so, they would have substantial quantity so that each flash sales won’t run out in seconds, which would obviously piss off a lot of customers. The next model to debut in India is their 5.5″ Redmi Note which they expect to go on sale in the next 2 months. Hugo also shared that logistics from China to India were challenging and they even had to charter planes to ship in stocks for the Big Billion Day last week.
When asked about the Mi 3 smart phone, Hugo says that they would stop manufacturing the model to make way for its latest Mi 4 flagship. The Mi 4 is expected to go on sale as early as December 2014 or January 2015. For India, their 4G LTE telcos Aircel and Airtel are operating on TDD-LTE Band 40 (2500MHz) which is supported on the Mi 4 4G LTE model. Until now, there’s still no signs of its FDD-LTE version that’s widely used internationally including Malaysia.
While Xiaomi is taking its time to make its Mi 4 widely available, the Honor 6 is stealing its “high performance, mid-spec price” title in Malaysia. Priced at RM999, the Honor 6 will be available in Malaysia beginning this Thursday, 16th October. Not only it shares similar hardware features including a 5″ Full HD screen, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage, 13MP main camera and a large 3,100mAh capacity battery but it also boast a faster Cat 6 Dual-band (FDD & TDD) 4G LTE.
At time of launch, the Mi 4 was a compelling product with an attractive price but they are struggling to make it available internationally and partly to be blamed is the lack of a FDD-LTE compatible version. As comparison, several devices announced during IFA 2014 in September has already gone on sale in Malaysia. Are you still waiting for the Mi 4? Or have you considered other alternatives?
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